Ripon’s 50th a Time to Reflect -Cagle

Our friends at Ripon Printers in sunny, downtown Ripon, WI, celebrated their 50th anniversary with an Open House on Sept. 26-27. According to Ripon stalwarts Deba Horn-Prochno and Carol Cluppert, the event was a huge success.

The anniversary celebration included a community/family night, with more than 500 visitors dropping by to say hello, while nearly 50 customers and prospects dropped by the second day. Festivities included a 45-minute tour of the facility, a family pictures video, printed samples, cake and punch. All visitors received a tote bag filled with goodies including a 50th Anniversary booklet, calendar, spiral notebook and pen.

The booklet contained a timeline, photos and testimonies by longtime employees. Jeff Miller, a first shift web press crew leader and a 35-year Ripon veteran, penned a nostalgic look back at his career. He started off making $2.80 an hour as an 18-year-old, and took the gig because it offered health insurance (some things never change). He remembers his first encounter with four-color printing (“Wow, art class paid off”) but, perhaps most of all, he reveled in the craftsmanship that enabled him to be expressive as well as productive.

“You had to be a skilled craftsman to get the most out of the equipment,” he wrote. “Everything was hands-on. Literally. What left the building was the work of your hands and mind.”

Times certainly have changed, Miller noted. Fifty years ago, no one would bat an eye at racing inside/outside the plant, using pallet jacks, trucks and office chairs as vehicles. Then there was the time someone on second shift wrote a welcome note in the parking lot by using press wash and set it ablaze. Most companies wince at the days when the break room was thick with cigarette smoke, a major no-no in the modern workplace.